The workload has gradually increased over the past year or so, and blog updates have become rarer as a result. The same applies to having new stuff to write about, so it’s been a case of waiting until there are a few subjects to cover.

Memories can be triggered by the unlikeliest of things, and so it was this weekend after our annual (actually just the second) Sloggers and Betters meeting in Macclesfield. Last year’s event was a great success, especially because of the musical entertainment on Friday evening, but Saturday felt a little anticlimactic. I was entirely sure why – the typical S&B format of small groups sitting at pub tables, chatting and solving crosswords has never left me feeling that something more was needed.

It’s very rare that I think about what turned me from nobody into full-time setter. If it’s a question of “How did I get here?” then I already know the answer; it was a combination of enthusiasm and a lucky break to get me started.

Before the Internet, cryptic crosswords inhabited an arcane and mysterious world populated by pedestal-mounted Latin scholars, and it’s fantastic that the old myths have been swept away. Contrary to those myths, we setters are actually a pretty normal bunch of gals and guys. Only a small percentage of us have beards; I’m almost certain none of the gals do.

If it’s not crosswords it’s music, and there are just a couple of weeks to go until I go to see Simple Plan at the O2 Ritz in Manchester as part of their ‘Taking One For The Team’ tour.

Given half an hour to really put my mind to it I’m sure I could think of areas of interest even more insignificant than crosswords, and I’ll bet all three have their dedicated online forums.

Yes, I’ve been quiet. Busy setting, mostly, but there’s another project on the go – it may come to nothing, but I’m giving it a go.

In good and bad ways it’s been a busy couple of months.

Because it was a prize puzzle, live until today, I spent last week in a fever of impatience, desperate to start writing about one of the nicest and strangest of clue-writing experiences.

My first job after leaving school was with a graphic design company in Manchester. The pay was too low for me to afford public transport, so I cycled there and back. No great hardship, of course, but it meant I didn’t have the luxury of tackling a crossword during the commute. To be honest, buying the paper would have been an extravagance on my wage. Occasionally, though, I called in at the newsagent across the road and picked up The Guardian so I could at least have a crack during lunch. My time at the company was short, but it saw me go from ‘crossword clueless’ to ‘a bit flash’; it also told me I would be a cryptic setter and that The Guardian’s inventiveness was my model and my place to start.